Search Tag: pathogens

2020 30 Jul

In recent years, infectious disease outbreaks have occurred with increasing frequency. Even though significant progress has been made to identify potentially dangerous pathogens, a lot still needs to be done. In particular,  diagnostics can play an important role in controlling epidemics.  There is a need to develop and deploy diagnostics that...Read more

2015 16 Nov

Infections from flexible endoscopes, missed alarms, and opioid-related deaths are the top health technology hazards that hospitals and clinicians have to deal with in 2016, according to a new report from the ECRI Institute. The group recently released its  annual top-10 list of technology hazards to help hospitals prioritise technology safety efforts...Read more

2015 04 Aug

According to a new study, hospitals using single-use sharps containers had significantly lower rates of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection compared to hospitals using reusable containers. The finding is reported in American Journal of Infection Control . “This is the first study to show a link between use of single-use sharps containers and...Read more

2014 08 Nov

The transmission of pathogens through blood and other body fluids represents one of the main risks in the healthcare setting. Although over 20 pathogens can be transmitted in this way, the most important are the hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) viruses and the AIDS virus (HIV). Since 2006 it has been mandatory in the Madrid Region of Spain to...Read more

2014 25 Sep

Researchers have developed a new approach to the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) that relies on direct sequencing of DNA extracted from sputum to detect and characterise the bacteria that cause TB. The new method eliminates the need for culturing bacteria in the laboratory, a time-consuming process. The new technique is referred to as metagenomics,...Read more